UK - Record label Warp Records has added two Funktion-One systems to its London headquarters, bringing new levels of monitoring to its studio and album playback spaces. The label, known for its roster of artists like Aphex Twin, Mount Kimbie and Flying Lotus, has been a subversive creative force in the music industry since it was founded in Sheffield in 1989.
The introduction of the Funktion-One monitor systems was instigated by head of A&R/creative director Dominic Flannigan, who was intent on improving the office listening experience.
“The main reason we want amazing monitors in the meeting room is to give a really impressive first listen to our team,” explains Flannigan. “The people from the marketing team, the licensing team, from retail, you want to blow their socks off the first time they hear a record. You want to hear it at its best.
“Funktion-One gives you power and accuracy and you can really hear the whole picture of the music, which at Warp is really important because of the range of our output. You're going from something like a Kelly Moran solo piano record to a dense and technically complex Square Pusher album.”
Both Meeting Room 1 and the Demo Room are now home to Funktion-One F81.2 (mid/high) and SB10A (self-powered bass) systems, completing the evolution of Warp’s listening spaces over recent years.
While Warp’s roots may be in electronic music, its current artist roster spreads far and wide. The Funktion-One systems have impressed in some unexpected ways, explains Flannigan: “I knew Funktion-One would be great for electronic music, I didn't realise it would be quite so good for the rock side of the roster.”
He continues: “I think there's an efficiency with Funktion-One that offers us true precision. You don't get perceptual tail on sounds which works well with Aphex Twin and all the detail in his music.
“I've also enjoyed listening to a lot more acoustic instrumentation and hearing how warm the Funktion-One can be, because it has that clarity in the low mids. If someone’s playing Clarissa Connelly's album, a Copenhagen-based composer we signed in late 2023, there’s lots of nice low frequency bass on the record and that's translating really well in the room.”
Funktion-One’s Andrew Low comments: “We are all big fans of the label and shortly after meeting Dom it was obvious that we share the same ideas about music as an artform that should be enjoyed through a brilliant sound system.”
